Air ambulance medics recall Edlington torture
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
The air ambulance crew that helped save the life of one of the boys in the Edlington torture case has spoken about that day for the first time.
The older victim was found unconscious and half-dressed in a wooded ravine after a sadistic attack by two brothers, then aged 10 and 11.
Medics with Derbyshire Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance were the first on the scene last April.
Dr Pamela Hardy said the boy, then aged 11, was "pretty close" to dying.
Detained indefinitely
The attack on 4 April last year involved "prolonged sadistic violence" and sexual humiliation by the brothers on their victims, then aged nine and 11.
Earlier this year, the attackers were detained indefinitely and told they must serve a minimum of five years.
A MAN found guilty of assaulting a paramedic on the night the Sugar Hut caught fire is refusing to complete his community service punishment as he maintains he is innocent.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 TOTAL ESSEX
Proceedings at Basildon Magistrates' Court had to be temporarily suspended on Friday after Alan Lethbridge, 28, repeatedly shouted from the dock that he was innocent and accused the paramedic he assaulted of lying and colluding with police.
The 28-year-old from Harold Hill was found guilty by magistrates of spitting at the paramedic, Richard Defries, who went to his aid after police sprayed CS gas in his face.
He shouted from the dock: "Put me in prison. I'm not guilty.
"Just put me in prison. I don't care."
It was while celebrating a friend's first boxing bout that the scene with Lethbridge erupted in Brentwood High Street on September 13 last year as the historic building that housed the Sugar Hut night club blazed.
Police standing at a cordon set up around the club were called to neighbouring O'Neill's pub to help eject Lethbridge.
A struggle ensued and he received a cut to his right eyebrow and was then sprayed with the gas as police tried to regain control of the situation.
Mr Defries, who had been on standby providing emergency cover to firefighters tackling the blaze, was asked to treat the builder but was verbally abused several times.
Lethbridge then deliberately spat in the medic's face.
The paramedic said: "The cut was a very minor injury so I wasn't concerned about his health and there was no concern about respiratory function.
"I was saying, 'I'm a paramedic – I'm here to help you.'"
The paramedic, who has worked for the ambulance service for 10 years, said: "I was with him for the next 10 minutes.
"Throughout, he was swearing and being aggressive."
"He looked at me directly... and spat at me.
paramedic leads campaign against high blood pressure
12:00pm Sunday 18th April 2010
By Harry Hogger
A CAMPAIGN to raise awareness about the risks of strokes devised by a Dorchester paramedic is hoping to tackle the ‘silent killer’ of high blood pressure.
The sessions will also see ambulance clinicians checking people’s pulses for irregular heart rhythms and teaching people about the FAST test – which stands for face, arm, speech test to educate people about how to recognise stroke symptoms.
Mr South, who lives in Dorchester, said he came up with the idea for the scheme while sitting on a train up to London.
“There was an existing campaign that had run for a while but it had been quite small scale and only checked people’s blood pressure,” he said.
“I thought we could combine all three different things and get a much better campaign going.”
